10/15/05: Russell, you so crazy!
"One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work terribly important."
-Bertrand Russell

10/12/05: iPod critique pt. 4 (Melville)
" 'This is all part of the shift from mass media to personalized media,' says Paul Saffo, a technology forecaster and director of the Institue of the Future. No doubt this is true, but is it, I wonder, a good thing? For all the cachet and control implied by the iPod, the laptop, the BlackBerry, the digital camera, and wi-fi, in the end what seems to be on offer are particular kinds of distraction and avoidance, and a peculiar kind of 21st-century digital loneliness."
-Caspar Melville

10/10/05: iPod critique pt. 3 (Melville)
"iPodistas like to talk up the social benefits of iPod-jacking: Total strangers swap iPods for a moment to listen to each other's selections. Well, okay. The utter hell of having to listen to strangers' music collections while standing close to them without talking in public notwithstanding, such an idea proceeds from the premise that it is the iPod that has offered this epochal opportunity for social interaction. It was, I am given to understand, entirely possible even before the iPod to approach a stranger on the street and attempt to swap words, names, or even ideas in a form of "tuning in" known as a conversation. A celebration of the joys of iPod-jacking seems a final acceptance that the possibility of actually communicating is gone for good, and we are left with a pale facsimile: You play me yours and I'll play you mine."
-Caspar Melville

10/08/05: iPod critique pt. 2 (Melville)
"Unlike listening to (good) radio, which could infuriate and surprise you in equal measure, the iPod jukebox protects you from the shocks, both highs and lows; it offers you a safe experience that flatters, because every good track is one you chose, every familiar song reminds you of an emotion or memory: yours. Never did I think I'd find myself sounding so much like that old Fankfurt school philosopher-grump Theodor Adorno, but his argument that pop music and its predictable structure deliver back to the user a cheap thrill because he or she recognizes how it will end seems to work for the iPod."
-Caspar Melville

10/06/05: iPod critique pt. 1 (Melville)
"Legal scholar Cass Sunstein has a theory about the Internet that he calls "The Daily We." The argument is that rather than broaden our access to information, ideas, and experiences, the Internet, precisely because it offers such dizzying, disorienting choice and possiblity, reinforces the tendency to filter out what is unknown, stick to what you like, and congregate with others who like the same thing."
-Caspar Melville

10/04/05: Poverty Is Flawed
"If you're poor, you must not be smart. If you're smart, then why are you poor? According to out dominant culture, poverty confirms a personal flaw."
-Angela Locke

09/29/05: Broken Cross? Say it ain't so!
"Just recieved my order I placed with you guys late last Saturday and hey presto its arrived at my hell hole today (Thursday). Fuck me the new Jelvins CD is a blast, the Virus 100 CD (I have it on vinyl but no player...) is so fucking cool sounding and the jackets better than i thought it'd be. Well you can guarantee that ill get a few looks from people. "Oh my broken cross, how UNchristian" *snore*. Anyhow I thought Id say a big thanx and another for the free poster.
Be cool. Paul."

09/18/05: Rare glimpse of right wing honesty
"We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."

09/14/05: Like husband, like wife!
"I also want to encourage anybody who was affected by Hurricane Corina to make sure their children are in school."

-First Lady Laura Bush, twice referring to a "Hurricane Corina" while speaking to children and parents in South Haven, Mississippi, Sept. 8, 2005

09/12/05: Like son, like mama!
"What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle) - this is working very well for them."

- Former First Lady of the US, Barbara Bush, 9/5/05

09/10/05: Update of Pastor Niemoller post-9/11/01
In recognition of the US government's neo-con response to the horrific attacks of 9/11/01 by Al-Queda, here is Steve Rohde's updated version of Martin Niemoller's eloquent elegy of the WW2 era:

"First they came for the Muslims and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Muslim.
Then they came for the immigrants detaining them indefinitely solely upon the certification of the Attorney General and I didn't speak up because I wasn't an immigrant.
Then they came to eavesdrop on suspects consulting with their attorneys and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a suspect.Then they came to prosecute non-citizens before secret military commissions, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a non-citizen.Then they came to enter homes and offices for unannounced "sneak and peek" searches and I didn't speak up because I had nothing to hide.
Then they came to reinstate Cointelpro and resume the infiltration and surveillance of domestic religious and political groups and I didn't speak up because I no longer participated in any groups.Then they came to arrest American citizens and hold them indefinitely without any charges and without access to lawyers, and I didn't speak up because I would never be arrested.Then they came to institute TIPS, the " Terrorism Information and Prevention System," recruiting citizens to spy on other citizens, and I didn't speak up because I was afraid.Then they came to institute Total Information Awareness, collecting private data on every man, woman and child in America, and I didn't speak up because I couldn't do anything about it.Then they came for immigrants and students from selective countries luring them under the requirement of "special registration" as a ruse to seize them and detain them, and I didn't speak up because I was not required to register.Then they came for anyone who objected to government policy because it only aided the terrorists and gave ammunition to America's enemies and I didn't speak up . . . because I didn't speak up.Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up."

FEMA in 2001, New Orleans Times-Picayune & PBS in 2002, FEMA in 2003, and National Geographic in 2004 are just some of the entities which reported extensively on the problems with the New Orleans levees. FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is part of the US federal government, currently situated in the Department of Homeland Security.

09/03/05: God Save the UK Post!
"ITS HERE!!!!!
23rd June and I have the package. As I thought the hold ups were at my end (The postal service in the UK is f***ing atrocious!!)... Anyway Rock on Have fun Fuck CensorshipPeace, Richard (AT fan since 1991, and still loving your work)"

"It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay.Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are
doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."- Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, LouisianaNew
Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004.